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Briefs, Aug. 30, 2013

On Sept. 5, the Grand Junction City Council plans to interview and likely choose a new council member from among six applicants vying to replace Councilmember Rick Brainard, who resigned earlier this month.

The six applicants who will be considered that evening are Riecke Claussen, Tom Kenyon, Reginald Wall, Barbara Traylor Smith, Teresa Black and Charles Michael Elliott. A seventh applicant, Michael Coltharp, withdrew from the process earlier this week.

Applicants will have a meet-and-greet with the council, followed by a question-and-answer forum, which is planned for 6 p.m. in the City Hall Auditorium at 250 N. Fifth St.

Questions from the public will be allowed during the question and answer session. After it, the mayor is expected to call a formal meeting and discussion, and a verbal vote is anticipated to select the council’s next member.

Colorado Congress expands office space

The Western Colorado Congress has moved into new, roomier offices, reflecting a growth in interest in the organization, officials said.

The congress remains in the same Sixth Street building in which it had been housed, but now has more than double the space, organizer Frank Smith said.

The organization, which had to lay off people in 2008, is growing again and is on a “firmer footing,” Smith said. The Mesa County chapter of the organization now boasts 350 members from Loma to Collbran, Smith said. The new address is 134 S. Sixth St.

City offices to be closed for Labor Day

City of Grand Junction offices will be closed on Monday in observance of Labor Day.

There will be no City Council workshop or meeting Monday. There will be no city of Grand Junction trash collection on Monday and it will be delayed one day for the remainder of the week. City recycling collection (provided by GJCRI) will be on a slightly different schedule. There will be no recycling collection on Monday, and Tuesday and Wednesday’s recycling will be collected one day late, but the schedule returns to normal on Thursday (Thursday pickup on Thursday, Friday pickup on Friday).

Monday will also be a parking meter holiday. You can park in metered spaces for free, which includes the parking garage on Rood Avenue.

There will be a book-signing for Hill from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturday at Bookcliff Gardens, 755 26 Road.

The novel is set in Palisade in the 1940s and follows 16-year-old Lucy, who is trying to keep her family — she has two younger twin siblings — after their parents tragically died. The siblings end up in Palisade where German POWs are brought in to help with the peach harvest.